Prospect Mountain

I had made grand plans to hit up some of the fire towers in the northern part of the state. The day started in glorious fashion and I got everything ready. These were towers we could drive up to, but the commute was going to take a while, so I figured while we had a day with no commitments till later that evening, let's cross these off the list. Plus the boys had not been this "far north" in New Hampshire. New places to explore. One last check on addresses and I see that our first stop is actually closed on Tuesday's.. what?! I panicked for a moment, but resolved we would go ahead with the plan anyway. After some quick research, I saw the auto road was open to hikers on any day and it was 1.5 miles from parking to the tower. I was sort of hoping I had misread the hours.. or that the tower wasn't actually in the State Park itself, but had in the back of my mind to be prepared for a little road hike. Almost 3 hours later we arrived at Weeks State Park in Lancaster, NH and yes.. the road was gated shut. Road hike it was. Thankfully the hike was mostly under tree cover and there was a delicious breeze most of the way. While naturally ascending, it didn't feel so steep and was actually a rather pleasant walk. The tower came into view and we took the last turn. A small 0.2 mile nature trail (Ken Jordan Nature Trail) veered off the road and we took this up to the tower itself. There was some landscaping maintenance going on, so it wasn't necessarily a quiet, peaceful stop.. but the weather was perfect and the views incredible. The tower was like a castle turret and unfortunately locked, so we couldn't go up. There are some picnic tables below however, so we stopped and had a snack while enjoying the surrounds. Quick dash back down the road, stopping at an over look of the Presidential Range and surrounding mountains (which is probably one of the best I have ever seen) and we were back at the car.

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